EXHIBITION KERTÉSZ- LARTIGUE UN PAS DE CÔTÉ
From February 15th to May 14th 2023 Espace Richaud - Versailles
«B ringing together the works of internationally renowned photographers André Kertész and Jacques Henri Lartigue at the Espace Richaud is a first. Co-produced with the Médiathèque du Patrimoine et de la photographie (MPP) and the Lartigue Donation, this exhibition highlights these two giants of 20th-century photography through a dialogue between two singular and fascinating works. This exhibition continues the path marked year after year by the cultural program of the city of Versailles, open to all and all the arts. Thus, a museum policy was born with the Richaud space - a magnificent former chapel of the royal hospital acquired by the city and inaugurated in 2015 -the Lambinet Museum, reopened in early December after three years of work, and the Carré à la farine exhibition hall. »
François de Mazières Mayor of Versailles President of Versailles Grand Parc
The Exhibition
"Because his photos are cousins of mine because in his memory there are twin residues of mine, he speaks to me as if I were his brother." In the early 1960s, the Museum of Modern Art in New York devoted monographic exhibitions to two photographers: Jacques Henri Lartigue (1894-1986) and André Kertész (1894-1985). Described by one as "the greatest amateur of the 20th century" and the other as "the inventor of photojournalism," each has a unique aesthetic. However, both of them can take a step aside from the major trends in photography.
The exhibition highlights these two personalities with parallel careers by presenting approximately 185 photographs and archival documents. This exhibition is co-produced with the Médiathèque du Patrimoine et de la photographie (MPP) and the Lartigue Donation.
Curator:
Marion Perceval, director of the Lartigue Donation and Matthieu Rivallin, assistant to the head of the photography department of photography of the MPP.
The two photographers
Of Hungarian origin, André Kertész settled in France between the wars and became a reporter-photographer. His success with the press and critics was immediate. In 1936, he emigrated to the United States, where he was commissioned by the Condé Nast press group. In 1964 he was honored with an exhibition at MoMA, where he once again considered photography as a means of artistic expression.
Jacques Henri Lartigue never ceased to mix his life and his multiple artistic practices (photography, painting, and writing) before being identified, during the 1963 exhibition, as the photographer of the innate "father of Henri Cartier-Bresson" and of the decisive moment. This belated recognition led him to become an archivist and memorialist of himself. He thus offered his photographs two temporalities: the moment of the shooting and the subsequent reframing.